3,000 socks have been magically assembled this morning at Takutai Square in Auckland by Street Artist Component and Westpac NZ in the shape of hero and leader Sir Peter Blake for Red Socks Day on Friday.

Volvo Ocean Race introduces new 65-foot one-design for next two races

The Volvo Ocean Race has unveiled details of the high-performance new boat that will be used for the next two editions of the Race.

“This breathtaking new design, and the agreement to build at least eight yachts, will take the Volvo Ocean Race into an exciting new era” – Knut Frostad

The plans detailed by Race CEO Knut Frostad at a presentation in Lorient on Thursday will significantly reduce the cost of mounting a competitive campaign and are designed to bring the size of the fleet to 8-10 boats in future editions.

The 65-foot (19.8-metre) monohull racing yacht will be strictly one-design. It will be designed by the United States-based Farr Yacht Design and constructed by a consortium of leading boatyards in the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Switzerland.

Under an agreement between Volvo Ocean Race and the consortium, a minimum of eight boats will be built to contest the next two races.

Work will begin in July and the first of the racing yachts in the new class will be completed by June 2013, well over a year before the start of the 12th edition of the Volvo Ocean Race, leaving from Alicante, Spain in the second half of 2014.

“This breathtaking new design, and the agreement to build at least eight yachts, will take the Volvo Ocean Race into an exciting new era,” said Knut Frostad, the Race’s Chief Executive Officer.

“It represents another major milestone for a race that has never been afraid to move forward in our 39-year history. This move to a one-design gives us an enormous head start in our planning for the next two races and puts the Volvo Ocean Race in even better shape going forward.”

Despite being five feet (1.5 metres) shorter, the new boat will be almost as fast as the Volvo Open 70s that are contesting the current race.

The boat will be designed and built with the latest video, satellite and content production facilities to further enhance the work being done in the unique Media Crew Member programme that has been in place since the 2008-09 race.

The agreement announced in Lorient has been made possible after Volvo Ocean Race S.L.U. secured financing that will underpin the process of designing and building the boats according to schedule.

Slip up allows sneak peek at NZ Olympic uniform

Fans had a brief chance to get a sneak online preview of the New Zealand Olympic team’s uniform today, ahead of a big bash unveiling this evening.

The uniform is to be revealed at a Prime Minister’s Olympic Gala Dinner at 6.30pm, but Stuff was sent a link shortly after noon which appeared to show the uniform at an internet address of designer Rodd & Gunn.

Chef de mission Dave Currie is among those shown wearing the uniform, with the picture clearly showing the team blazers and women’s dresses.

The page has been taken down and an embedded YouTube video interview with Rodd & Gunn designer Irena Prikryl has also been removed this afternoon.

NZ Olympic Committee spokeswoman Ashley Abbott said the link was viewed 17 times, while the web company preparing the page had been testing it.

The America’s Cup will get its first chance to test its product with a United States audience this weekend, when a part of the World Series race in Newport, R.I., will be broadcast on NBC. This is the first time a professional sailing race will be shown live on a major American network in 20 years.

Assuming that faster, more dangerous races can generate interest, there is still one major challenge: even sailors acknowledge that their sport can be almost incomprehensible to the naked eye.

The task of changing this belongs to Stan Honey, whom the America’s Cup hired as its director of technology last spring. Honey has made a career out of creating augmented reality for sports broadcasts. He is best known for the glowing first-down line in football telecasts, and he has also developed glowing hockey pucks for N.H.L. games, the illuminated strike zone for baseball and various graphics for Nascar races.

Sailing is in more dire need of augmented reality than perhaps any other sport, said Honey, a former professional sailor. Boats tack back and forth, trying to catch pockets of wind that will propel them through a race’s various legs. It can be difficult to determine who is ahead, or what strategy is being employed to remain there.

“If you don’t put the graphics on the water, you end up with people saying, O.K., white triangles on a blue background,” Honey said.

On returning to the helm after a three regatta break:
In the practice racing we’ve been struggling. The competition is really, really tough. All the of the crews are well prepared. Boat handling-wise, tactically and across the board, the fleet’s tough. Realistically for us, if we can get in the top half of the fleet it will a tremendous achievement.

This image is from the 13 year old opti sailor who went for a sail that day

Newport, Rhode Island is the final stop in the inaugural America’s Cup World Series (AC World Series), which will feature both fleet and match racing. The event will take place June 26 – July 1, 2012.

For the first time, America’s Cup racing will be held inside Narragansett Bay, with excellent spectator views of the race course from the AC Village at Fort Adams. The regatta will give the public an opportunity to watch the world’s top sailors compete in the state-of-the-art AC45 wing-sailed catamarans, which will be the first time the high-tech boats will be raced on the east coast of the U.S.

opps!!

Barker says he had to luff to avoid a couple of spectator boats and lifted a hull to avoid the official boat. A collision could not be avoided and the port hull of the AC45 came into contact with the mark boat’s rail. “It probably looked more spectacular than it was. No one was hurt and neither boat suffered serious damage.” The Ac45’s under-rigging and the port rudder were damaged and will be repaired overnight. Barker says the AC45 will be back on the water tomorrow.

Rivalry heats up ahead of 2011-12 AC World Series climax
Newport, RI.

With over 100 local junior sailors in the audience, ORACLE TEAM USA’s Jimmy Spithill and Emirates Team New Zealand’s Dean Barker both declared their intention to leave Newport with the inaugural AC World Series trophy in hand. And while Terry Hutchinson’s Artemis Racing still has a mathematical chance of playing the spoiler, most are looking at this as a two horse race for the title between Spithill and Barker.

Spithill’s ORACLE TEAM USA is in pole position with a narrow four-point advantage entering the regatta. But with 10 points available to the winner of each discipline here – match racing and fleet racing – that lead can disappear quickly.

This is why we’re in the World Series, to be in regatta pressure and put ourselves on the line,” said Spithill. “I’d rather go in to the final event four points clear than the other way, but it’s extremely close. The best thing is it will be decided on the water, and it will be decided on Sunday.”

“Absolutely,” Barker answered when asked if winning was the goal for his team. “We still think we have a very good chance. We need to put together a good result in the Match Racing Championship which will set up the opportunity to take the overall title. Then it comes down to how well we fleet race. I think we have as good a chance as anyone.”

Artemis Racing could easily have made this a three-team fight for the overall title, were it not for the fleet racing. The Swedish challenger leads the match race standings for the season, but sits in fourth place in fleet racing, something skipper Terry Hutchinson attributes to inconsistent starts: “It really doesn’t come down to anything but I haven’t started the boat well throughout the series,” explained Hutchinson. “It’s been a bit of an Achilles’ heel for us and it’s on me to make it better.”

Championship Racing in the AC World Series Newport is from June 28 to July 1 with the grand finale on Sunday to be broadcast live on NBC across the United States beginning at 1430 EDT. All four days of racing can be seen worldwide on www.youtube.com/americascup (subject to territorial broadcast agreements).

The teams have two days of official practice racing on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon before racing starts on June 28 at 1200 EDT.

During Tuesday’s practice session, Emirates Team New Zealand had a collision with one of the mark boats in gusty conditions late in the afternoon. The initial assessment is that both boats suffered minor damage, with nothing serious enough to keep the Kiwis from racing on Thursday.

Quotes from the Newport ‘Meet the Skippers’ event:

Jimmy Spithill, ORACLE TEAM USA Spithill: I was just speaking with Dean (Barker) before coming on stage and he was saying how confident he was, that he’s got this one in the bag, and he’s cleaned out some room in his trophy cabinet (laughing). But we’re going to make him work for it!

Dean Barker, Emirates Team New Zealand: Jimmy (Spithill) is going in as hot favorite, but we have a fantastic opportunity in front of us. It’s going to be a great event. We’ve been here for a few days and the sailing here is fantastic. It’s not getting any easier, that’s for sure – all eight teams are capable of winning races.

Terry Hutchinson, Artemis Racing: I think the great state of Rhode Island is going to deliver really, really good conditions for us. When you look at the forecasts we should have some really good sea breeze days. This race course is not that tricky that random things will happen. I think everyone will get a handle on it and if we get some solid sea breezes, we’ll have a lot of action.

Loïck Peyron, Energy Team: Any time you have the chance to sail on these boats you will improve and any time you can fight against the best, as we do here, it’s even better. But I’ve never tried to specialize in what type of boat I sail.

Nathan Outteridge, Team Korea: The 49er class is quite fast and the racing happens very quickly on short courses, so for me to step onto the AC45, while it’s obviously a big step, to be honest we have a great team that makes my life pretty easy at the moment.

Russell Coutts, ORACLE TEAM USA Coutts (on whether he is out of practice): All of these guys sitting up here should just stay out of our way this week (laughing).

Chris Draper, Luna Rossa Piranha: We’ve had some great sailing. It was so nice on day one of training here to trim on and let the boat rip. We’re looking forward to racing in these waters; we have tide, windshifts, everything we like about the sport. The city has given us a really warm welcome.

Max Sirena, Luna Rossa Swordfish: We’re still in the learning process as a team. But we’re pretty happy with our results so far. We’re looking forward this week to see if we can improve on what we did in Venice. But these guys have been sailing for more than one year and we’re trying to close the gap in time for San Francisco next year.

Dalton keen to crew the big cat

By Dana Johannsen

Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton is so excited about the potential of the team’s new AC72 catamaran, he plans to join the crew for the next America’s Cup.

The team took delivery of their first AC72 yesterday – a significant milestone for the syndicate as they continue to embrace multihull sailing. And it is a world Dalton wants to experience first hand, rather than from a chase boat.

Dalton has been training with the America’s Cup crew twice a day to prepare for the gruelling physical demands of sailing the mammoth catamaran, which is capable of 40 knots.

Oracle chief executive Sir Russell Coutts, the mastermind behind the new multihull class, said when he unveiled the plans for next year’s cup that the new boats will encourage a new breed of sailor. The crew need to be strong, athletic and agile to manoeuvre the giant catamarans around the course and Dalton is confident his 54-year-old body will hold up.

“You can get knocked around a fair bit, at 40 knots this thing will really fly, but I think I’m up to the challenge,” said Dalton.

“If I’m not up to it, and I’ll know it myself, I won’t do it – simple as that.”

It is interesting to see how the designers try to comply with the rules. So, the forward hull surface should have a minimum (AC72 Rule). Amongst others, it is a guarantee to preserve a significant buoyancy reserve. But the shape of the forward sections (ETNZ hull) shows how to divert the rule by arcing away the hull from the load waterline. The upper (top) part of the forward hull is narrower. There are several advantages as reducing wind resistance and allowing water to escape more quickly.

Another point: the maximum beam is rather forward. So the lines are tight on their aft part.